Friday, 1 November 2013

Efforts to protect the Ross Sea in Antarctica have failed for a third time. Russia, supported by the Ukraine, blocked the deal claiming concerns about the size of the proposed reserve and how it would restrict fishing. The proposal put forward by the Unites States and New Zealand was for a 1.3 million square kilometer area of ocean to be protected but consensus was needed to achieve this which was not secured. These developments clearly show that better mechanisms are needed to safeguard fragile and vulnerable ecosystems in polar waters that are focused on marine protection best practices and not fisheries management principles connected to the interests of one or two countries.

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